Where will it end?

SCHOOLCHILDREN and teachers in Hendon were seen running away from two teenagers who had threatened them with a gun and a knife before robbing them.

Valuables worth £800 were taken from the terrified pupils when the two 14-year-olds went to St Mary’s High School in Sunningfields Road, Hendon, on February 8.

The teens, from Tottenham and Walthamstow, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are thought to have been looking for a student with whom they had had a dispute about a girl.

When they were unable to find the pupil, they began to threaten and rob other students. Four had property taken after being threatened with a 3in lock-knife and a gas-powered airgun.

Staff at the school contacted police and the suspects were arrested in a nearby street a few minutes later.

Both pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery. One also pleaded guilty to possessing a knife while the other pleaded guilty to firearms offences.

The 14-year-old buyklonopin from Tottenham was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court last Thursday to a two-year detention and training order and his accomplice to a three-year youth rehabilitation order.

Detective Constable Ian Holmes said: “These youths travelled across London armed with a knife and functioning gun, albeit an air weapon, that looked just like a real handgun. The motive for their actions appears to have been a trivial dispute over an alleged affront to a girl.

“The prompt action of the school and the police led to their speedy arrest and the return of the victim’s property.”

Detective Sergeant Andy Goodwin, of Barnet Acquisitive Crime Unit, added: “It’s hard to know which is the most disturbing element of this crime – the age of those who carried it out or the fact that children were threatened with a firearm at their school. It is not hard to imagine the consternation for the pupils who were robbed, or for the staff who were informed there was someone in the school with a gun. It is apparent that the very young age of these young offenders is the only thing that has spared them from a very long period in custody.